Utility Trailer's Arkansas plant earns safety honor

Utility Trailer’s 450 employees at the dry freight trailer assembly plant in Paragould performed more than 750,000 work hours in 2007 with limited injuries and illnesses.

The Trucker News Services

6/2/2008

PARAGOULD, Ark. — For the fourth time in the last five years, Utility Trailer’s manufacturing plant in Paragould was awarded the Plant Safety Award by the Truck Trailer Manufacturers Association (TTMA), the company reports. The Paragould facility, established in 1993, was again identified in 2007 by TTMA as having the best overall safety record of all manufacturing facilities identified in the association’s Category A ranking.

This safety achievement means that Utility Trailer’s 450 employees at the dry freight trailer assembly plant in Paragould performed more than 750,000 work hours in 2007 with limited injuries and illnesses.

The year 2007 also marked another plant achievement, the roll-out of the 75,000th dry van manufactured by plant employees.

“As a company and at all five Utility Trailer manufacturing plants, we emphasize disciplined behavior, safe work processes and employee ownership of safety,” says David Neighbors, plant manager at the Paragould facility. “Achieving this annual award for safety performance is significant, but what is truly impressive are the actions and attitudes of every single person at out plant to work safely, year-in and year-out.”

TTMA awards safety winners based on information member companies submit on the OSHA Form 300, which is sent by all manufacturers to the Federal Government by January 31st of each year.

Utility Trailer said the company takes a proactive approach to on-the-job-safety at all five of its manufacturing plants. Routine audits, staff training programs and active safety checks by line supervisors are integral to a safe work environment.

Utility Trailer Manufacturing Co. is America’s oldest privately owned and operated trailer manufacturer. It was founded in 1914 by brothers E.W. and H.C. Bennett and is still family-owned to this day. Utility Trailer bills itself as the largest producer of refrigerated vans and the third-largest trailer manufacturer in the United States.